Concerned citizens crammed into a City Commission meeting Tuesday night to discuss the construction plans for Northwest Eighth Avenue.
About 80 people came to the A. Quinn Jones Center and spoke for two hours about safety and traffic problems the city’s plan could cause.
The plan is to change three segments of Northwest Eighth Avenue — about a 3-mile stretch from Northwest 23rd Street to Northwest 34th Street.
The engineers Rahim Harji, project manager, and his consultant Ryan McGinnis, presented 11 options for construction that included resurfacing the roads, reducing the speed limit, adding bicycle lanes, switching to two lanes, adding a median or a variation of all options.
Residents said they were concerned about changing the four-lane roads to two lanes, because it could back up traffic, especially on gamedays.
When McGinnis said there would be no impact on the intersection at 34th Street, the audience grumbled.
City Commissioner Todd Chase asked if he would bet his career on it.
After restating there would be no adverse impacts, McGinnis added that moving to two lanes from four would make the trip eight seconds longer.
During citizen comment, resident Chandler Otis said traffic has to merge anyway, so he favors reducing the lanes and using the space for bike lanes.
“We’ll end up with a fantastic recreational facility,” he said.
In addition to many of the options, the speed limit would be reduced from 45 mph to 35 mph.
Aside from traffic, many residents stressed the importance of safety.
Most residents said they favored the option that includes two lanes and a wide buffer before the bicycle lanes or the option that includes two lanes, bike lanes, no buffer and a median.
John Brennan, 32, said he decided to come to the meeting because he lives near the road that will be renovated.
“I’ve come here with an open mind to hear what they have to say,” he said, “but I like that all of the options in my area keep the parking spaces.”
The construction was originally needed because the road is old and crumbling.
Improving the road became a top priority in 2008, according to the meeting agenda, but the first public meeting regarding the project was not until May 2011.
When an option is chosen, all of the construction will be done at the same time, Harji said.
